seeking but outward peace and comfort, I hastened away to gape at other things.
(An Accident befalls the Pilgrim while in the Estate of the Clergy.)
18. I will not pass over in silence what further befell me in this street. My friend Impudence had persuaded me to join the estate of the ecclesiastics, saying that it was my destiny to belong to it; and, indeed, I confess that this was according to my wishes, though not everything in that estate pleased me. And I allow myself to be inveigled; I assume cap and cowl, and step with others into divers side chapels till a separate one was allotted unto me. But looking back at those behind me, I see that one turned his back on me; another shook his head over me; a third winked with his eye at me evilly; a fourth threatened me with his fist; a fifth pointed at me with his finger. At last,[1] some rushing at me, push me away and put another in my place, threatening that they would do yet worse; and I was afeard and ran away, saying to my guides: "Oh, over this most wretched world,
- ↑ Though this is a mere conjecture, I think that, in distinction to the earlier part of this chapter, Komensky here writes autobiographically. Komensky's dissensions with members of his community were, indeed, later than the year 1623, in which he wrote the "Labyrinth." But it is known that the later editions, particularly that of Amsterdam, 1663, from which I translate, contains additions. A full commentary on the "Labyrinth" and thoroughly critical edition of the book have, unfortunately, not yet been published in Bohemia.
